Hunger & Hormones: The Missing Piece to your Weight-loss Puzzle?

Hormones comprise our bodies’ messenger service. They coordinate the different functions in your body and control everything from your metabolism to your sexual function, circadian rhythms, mood and memory.

These chemical messengers also play a big role when it comes to food—specifically, when and how much we eat. And seeing how most of us live in a country with staggeringly high obesity rates, taking a few minutes to understand how our hormones can affect our diets is a worthwhile endeavor.

Today, let's talk about leptin and ghrelin, two hormones you may not have heard of before, but that have a direct impact on your body and health nonetheless.

What Are Leptin and Ghrelin?

Leptin and ghrelin are the two main hormones that control your appetite and sense of hunger and fullness. These hormones are actually fairly new to science—leptin was only discovered in the mid-1990s, followed by ghrelin in the late ‘90s. So while there is still much to learn about them, scientists have unlocked some of their secrets.

Ghrelin is primarily made in your stomach & signals your appetite, hunger, and fat storage. It also plays a role in glucose metabolism (blood sugar regulation and insulin distribution)and energy levels, among many others. Unsurprisingly, your stomach releases ghrelin when it’s empty (or close to it), which means your ghrelin levels are at their highest before meals and at their lowest after you’ve finished eating.

Leptin is made by your adipose (fat) cells in response to stored fat levels & helps regulate your body weight over the long term by sending signals to your brain when you’ve eaten enough to let you know that you’re full. If your body has high levels of leptin, your brain recognizes that you have plenty of stored fat and sends the signal that you are no longer hungry. However, if you have low leptin levels, your brain believes you need to store more fat and signals that you need to eat.

Basically, you can think of leptin and ghrelin as two sides of the same coin. One side, ghrelin, triggers feelings of hunger to let you know it’s time to eat, while the other side, leptin, tells your body when you’ve had enough and need to stop.

What Happens When Your Leptin and Ghrelin Levels Are Out of Whack

With something as important to your health as when and how much you eat, you can imagine that you might run into trouble if your leptin and ghrelin levels become out of balance.

Let’s start with ghrelin. People who struggle with obesity are more likely to have lower levels of this hormone. Some researchers argue that people who are overweight are naturally more sensitive to ghrelin. Regardless, a low ghrelin level means you feel hungrier more often, making overeating harder to avoid.

If low ghrelin levels are a problem, it makes sense that high leptin levels would also be an issue—which is, in fact, the case. It’s enough of an issue that it’s been given a name: hyperleptinemia. Hyperleptinemia can cause your body to become desensitized to leptin, a condition called “leptin resistance.”

When you have leptin resistance, you no longer get the sensation of feeling full. In effect, your brain starts to think you don’t have enough fat reserves (even when you do), which causes your body to enter into starvation mode, decreasing your energy levels and lowering your metabolic rate. This further contributes to weight gain—a double whammy!

Putting it all together, when your leptin or ghrelin hormones become unbalanced, you can experience inappropriate hunger or satiety, which can lead to adverse health effects like fat gain, increased blood sugar levels, prediabetes and type 2 diabetes, inappropriate melatonin signaling, and even poor sleep. Worst of all, it becomes a vicious cycle, making you ever unhealthier and keeping you from your health goals.

How to Keep Your Leptin and Ghrelin Levels Balanced and Healthy

Our bodies naturally produce leptin and ghrelin, and as of yet, science has not uncovered any foods, supplements, or medications that can directly control our levels of these hormones. However, that doesn’t mean there is nothing we can do to affect them. On the contrary, there are a number of strategies we can employ that can help keep leptin and ghrelin levels healthy and balanced. The top ways to maintain or re-balance your hunger hormones are:

Eat real food. Our bodies were not designed to consume large amounts of sugary, processed, nutrient-stripped food. Studies show that consuming high levels of fructose (often found in processed foods) can lead to leptin resistance. Fructose, simple carbohydrates, and sugary beverages can also impair your ghrelin response. Focus instead on eating real, whole foods, (things not found in a package or drive through) and as close to what you would find in nature as possible.

Avoid late-night snacking. Using your refrigerator as a night light is not a great idea. A recent Harvard study found that nighttime eating “had profound effects on hunger and the appetite-regulating hormones leptin and ghrelin.” In particular, leptin levels decreased for 24 hours after indulging in a late-night snack—yet another reason to avoid this habit. Choose a time to "close the kitchen" and practice some form of self care instead!

Make protein a priority. Protein is a super-important macronutrient, and it is effective at suppressing ghrelin as well. You probably know this from experience—you generally feel fuller longer when you eat a meal with protein than when you eat a meal without it. So focus on adding high-quality protein (grass-fed, pasture-raised beef, chicken, and eggs for example) to every meal.

Stay active. Exercise improves leptin sensitivity. Exercise routines like HIIT (high-intensity interval training) can also help regulate leptin levels, which means we’ve uncovered yet another benefit of the “wonder drug” known as movement and exercise. Even a 20 minute daily walk can improve hormone balance!

Prioritize healthy sleep. Studies have shown a significant correlation between sleep and your hunger-hormone levels. One study found a single sleepless night can increase ghrelin levels, and getting just four hours of sleep on back-to-back nights was enough of a disruption to lower leptin and increase ghrelin. The data indicates sleeping well can go a long way toward helping you manage your hunger, so remember SLEEP IS KING when it comes to your health!

Engage in self-care. Chronic stress is a recipe for disaster for our overall health and wellness, and that includes our hormone levels. And research has shown that cortisol, the “stress hormone,” impacts leptin production in the body. Be sure to incorporate plenty of time in your schedule for activities that help you manage your stress in a healthy way. Journaling, stretching, meditating, walking in nature, making a healthy meal with loved ones, cleaning & organizing your space are just a few simple self care ideas!

Science may not yet know all there is to know about leptin and ghrelin, but what we do know is enough to help encourage us to lean into healthy lifestyle practices. It’s my hope that something in this article nudges you in that direction too!

Looking for a personalized plan to reach your weight-loss or wellness goals?

Click below to schedule your FREE discovery call and let's talk about how you can find success, for life!

Discovery Call

Book Now